It’s an epicenter at parties, mealtime and family gatherings, so it might be the most important space in your home—the kitchen.
Your kitchen sees it all: food prep, snack time, school projects, holiday baking, toddler time with instruments and dinner parties with friends. Shouldn’t you do all that you can to keep your home’s headquarters clean the natural way?
Use these nine tips for making your kitchen sparkling clean and naturally green. Hint: Be sure to stock up on baking soda.
- Kick the cleaning-with-chemicals habit. Since we’re living in the planet-friendly age, choose non-toxic cleaners that won’t harm the oceans, the environment or your family. You can also make your own with two ingredients found in the pantry: baking soda and vinegar.
- Naturally care for your drain (and the oceans!). To prevent gunk buildup, give your drain a weekly pick-me-up. We’ll even give you a choice of scents. Pour ½ cup of baking soda and ½ cup of vinegar down the drain. Let it sit for 20 minutes or more. Once time is up, pour in boiling water to flush it all out. For a fresher scent, replace vinegar with lemon juice.
- Be smart about running water. Replace your old, inefficient faucet with a WaterSense model to save hundreds of gallons of water a year.
- Let salt and cinnamon become besties with your stovetop. Salt can absorb a stovetop spill and help break up the residue. Cinnamon mixed with it (for electric stoves) helps hide the burn smell the next time you use the burner.
- Clean your containers. Stains on food-storage containers can be removed using a baking soda paste made with water or lemon juice.
- Gear up for green on-the-go. Take your green habit with you for lunches, road trips and picnics. Be sure to use reusable food-storage containers and water bottles, along with cloth napkins. Single-serve snacks/drinks and baggies shouldn’t be stocked in your pantry.
- Chemical-free floors, please. For tile floors, mop with ½ cup of baking soda and a bucket of warm water. Be sure to rinse. Try a gallon of warm water with 1 cup vinegar for ceramic, linoleum and vinyl floors.
- Declutter your cabinets and drawers. Clean out what you don’t need and share with someone who does. Consider donating to one of the Habitat ReStore locations.
- Don’t forget the trash can. Sprinkling a little baking soda at the bottom of your garbage can (when you empty it) helps eliminate odors.
Now that you’ve rid your kitchen-cleaning routine of harmful chemicals, toxins and clutter, don’t you want the same for your electricity? Sign up for sparkling clean energy, sourced from non-polluting sources like wind and solar power.
For more ways to be simply green in the kitchen, check out this video.
